IT Project Clearance

NITDA as the clearing House of IT Projects in Nigeria has been mandated to clear all IT Projects in line with the policy objectives of the Federal Government to maximize transparency and accountability in carrying out IT Projects by Public Institutions.

Consequently, the Federal Government issued a Circular No SGF/6/S.19/T/65 of 18th April 2006 directing that all Public Institutions planning to embark on any IT project shall obtain clearance from NITDA.

The realization that over the years, the public funds that were spent on IT Projects were not commensurate with the value derived from such Projects and had also failed to evolve a digitally-enabled public service that will advance the citizens’ yearnings of digital economy, hence the need to strategically reposition the deployment of IT Products and Services in Public Institutions. It is therefore imperative to ensure that maximum value is derived from such huge investment of public funds, especially at a time when the need for accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness is eminent.

The implementation of this mandate will assist in the harmonization of the implementation of IT projects within the Public Institutions, reduction in the cost of IT project execution and duplication, development of the local IT market in volume of trade and content and ensuring accurate statistics as regards IT assets for Government.

Integration of IT systems and services by MDAs to save costs, promote shared services, interoperability and improve efficiency;

That the technology and services being procured are suitable for the country from the point of view of security and the environment, among others;

That there is indigenous capacity for after-sales-service to sustain the project beyond the initial deployment;

That the project promotes indigenous content and that preference shall be given to indigenous companies where capacity or the product or service exists; and

That the technology being implemented is up-to-date.

The Guidelines are issued in line with the need for a coordinated, standardized and orderly approach to the deployment of Information Technology (IT) systems by Public Institutions.

Furthermore, the Agency seeks to automate the submission of IT Projects by Public Institutions for onward clearance with the development of robust multi-tenant web-based platform to allow the submission of IT Projects online 24/7 and allow for collaborative comments from NITDA officers towards IT project clearance.

The Agency expects the automation of this process to increase the service delivery and efficiency of NITDA IT Project Clearance mandate in the submission and clearing of projects, continuous harmonization of the implementation of IT projects within Public Institutions.